Open letter to City Council regarding Community Theatre Funding

January 11, 2010

Barrie City Hall,
70 Collier Street,
Barrie, Ontario.  L4M 4T5

Attention:  Mayor Aspden & Members of Council.

Reference:  Government of Canada Funding for a New Downtown Community Theatre.


Dear Council:

Without doubt we all agree a cultural venue such as a performing arts theatre in the heart of Barrie is very important to the revitalization of the city’s downtown core.

Remembering how hard we worked together to obtain the $2.5 million in Federal Funding for this $5 million dollar project I was very surprised when informed there was a good possibility of the Downtown Community Theatre being scratched from the City’s Capital Plan.

With this in mind I just want to ensure you are aware the $2.5 Federal contribution is only available if completed by March 2011.  It would be truly unfortunate if any future build required the city to debenture this project in its entirety.

Opportunities for the funding of a theatre from a senior level of government do not come along very often.  In 2001 Barrie City Council was unsuccessful in their attempt to secure funding from the Super Build Fund even though they had the support of both the MPP and MP of the day. This has been a dream of many in our community for more than two decades.  We hit a home run in Ottawa with this funding application. Let's take it home.


Best regards,


Patrick Brown,
Member of Parliament, Barrie.